What is decay rate for perishable firearms skills?

[Ankeny]

It seems to depend a lot on what level of skill you're at to begin with, and how much degradation is acceptable to you.

Agreed. I haven't had the chance to shoot for a couple of weeks and I am not concerned as far as local competition. It wouldn't bother me to go six months without shooting my carry gun.

For example, suppose I was in top form and I could shoot Mozambique drills with my commander in something along the lines of 1.4 seconds. If I didn't even touch the gun for six monthes the same drill might slip to 1.7 seconds. That's somewhere around a 20 percent difference. A 20 per cent drop on USPSA classifiers or speedshoots is huge. Three tenths of a second more for carry purposes doesn't cause me a whole lot of heart burn.

 

[PT92]

You lose little or no skills if you actually dry fire for 15 minutes twice [ or more ] a week.

The skill of shooting is breath control and FRONT SIGHT and your gtg.

That requires very little actual shooting of live ammo.

Hope this is something of what you were seeking.

Agreed provided one check their respective manual prior to as you can potentially damage your firearm (I have a few replica air-soft scale guns that I practice dryfire with at times).

-Cheers

 

[mortablunt]

Handgun skills are probably the most perishable. Back in January, when I was on winter break, I practiced a lot daily with airsoft handguns. Then I come back without 4 months of practice, and I've lost a lot of ground. I'd say that skill decays at somewhere between 2-3 weeks, although it is always quick to recover. After the first 3 mags, I got back to where I was. Of course, precision and competition skills are harder to gain and quicker to perish. I think that weekly practice is the bare minimum to avoid any sort of decay. Don't worry; practical defensive skills and muscle memory won't fade for quite a long time, although taking up a new platform and dropping the current one will hasten the process.

 

[hardluk1]

Theres an old man, around 80 years old that is one of the guys that helps take care of a forestry range on his own. Shoots from time to time. He is skinny ,does not walk to well. A bit shacky when standing around. Been in a fire and burt baddly and like many us us older guys .CAN"T HEAR well anymore. When he raise's his pistol he is the most impressive shooter I have meet in years. Takes his sw model 22 revolver and DA trigger pulls can dance shotgun case's at 25 yards just not missing them. Handed him my .22 rifle and does the same thing standing and shooting at 50 yards. fine older shooter.

 

[mavracer]

Well.... I don't actually know what to look for when dry firing.

Get yourself a cheap laser pointer and use a rubber band to hold it to gun, a small piece of cloth will keep you from scratching the gun. Hold the dot on a light switch or something all the way through trigger pull.

 

[DefiantDad]

Get yourself a cheap laser pointer and use a rubber band to hold it to gun, a small piece of cloth will keep you from scratching the gun. Hold the dot on a light switch or something all the way through trigger pull.

Thanks, actually I do that already (laser/light attachment) and it doesn't move when the gun clicks (on a snap cap). So that's all I see, and not sure if I did it right or that's pretty much it.

 

[bruzer]

My internet firearms skills never decay. As long as I have power and a computer I'll always be 10 foot tall, bullet proof and a tack driver with everything I touch. Haha
Mike

 

[DefiantDad]

Hahaha